Thursday, 14 May 2015

Hello!My nails today were inspired by a manicure done recently by Polish Is The New Black. She did a gorgeous blue-based rose design, inspired by Cath Kidston prints. I knew as soon as I saw it that I wanted to give it a go! I also knew that it would take a while, but I found some spare time last night while I was watching telly, and did the design myself.My base was Blueberry by Barry M. I kind of wish I'd picked a paler blue!

I then used Cotton by Barry M and my Models Own dotting tools to create the white 'cloud' shapes (largest dotting tool)....

...and the little dots (smallest dotting tool).

I then took Passionfruit by Barry M and added a large blob in the middle of each 'cloud', again with a dotting tool.

I used a Green Models Own polish to add leaves - these are a bit messy as I did them with a small dotting tool because I'm rubbish at using brushes! Because of this they're more like blobs than actual leaf shapes, but hopefully because the design is so tiny it won't be too obvious!

Then I topcoated, and cleaned up excess polish from around my cuticles using a small brush dipped in acetone. Finally, I used my white Barry M nail art pen to add a bit of detail to the roses, and topcoated again!

I'm glad I persevered with these - they didn't look great mid-way through but the end result is really pretty! Thanks for the inspiration, Polish Is The New Black! :-D

Sunday, 10 May 2015

Hello!I wanted to do some nice, bright nails for a trip to London this weekend. I knew I wanted to use my new, super-bright Electric Nights polishes I'd recently bought. These are by China Glaze and they're gorgeous!I also wanted to try out my new swirly vinyls from She Sells Seashells. I thought I'd combine the two, and came up with this! For all nails I started with a white base - I used Cotton by Barry M. Once this was dry, I topped my ring finger, little finger and thumb with two coats of the neon glitter.

For the swirly nails, I waited a bit longer until the white was completely dry. I then used tweezers to carefully pull up a swirly vinyl, and stick it down onto the nail, two to each nail as my nails are long! I painted over with the pink, then removed the vinyl immediately. There were some imperfections where the pink leaked a little into the white, so I used a white nail-art pen to correct this before topcoating.I looooveeee theeeemmmm!!!

Saturday, 2 May 2015

Hello!I've wanted to try this 'look' on my nails for a while after seeing others do similar. I bought the OPI Sheer Tints mini collection soon after it was released, but struggled to think of ways to use it in my manicures. The collection consists of clear polishes that are 'tinted' with colour - so you can use them over other colours to alter them, or over white to create a pattern etc.For this manicure, I started with a base of a silver holo polish, and topped this with glitter. Here it is before I started playing with the sheer tints: (I especially like the shadow of my hand in this pic, haha)

I then got the sheer tints, and dabbed the colours in a random pattern on each nail. I let them overlap a bit to create new colours, and then added topcoat. The result was a lovely, shimmery glittery manicure!

Friday, 24 April 2015

I haven't bought any new polish for aaaages but I had to cave when I saw the new Electric Nights collection by China Glaze, and seeing manicures people had created using the polishes. I'm not usually bothered about China Glaze as a brand - it seems a bit too pricey for me, and I prefer to stick to polishes that are more easily available on the highstreet for not too much money, such as Barry M and Models Own. However, I saw that these new China Glaze polishes were available on Nail Polish Direct for half price, and couldn't resist treating myself to some. I agonised between getting the full collection of the mini neon cremes, but to save money I settled on getting my favourite full-size creme and my favourite glitter from the collection. These were Glow With The Flow (pink!) and Point Me To The Party (multi-coloured neon glitter).

They came this week and I was desperate to use them! I had a few ideas, but ended up going for a pink-to-white gradient with the glitter over the top. For the gradient I used Glow With The Flow, along with a paler pink (to help the gradient blend better) and a white polish, both Barry M. These photos don't do the pink justice - my camera couldn't handle the neon! It's soooo bright in real life, and I definitely want to wear this for like the whole of summer. The glitter is fab too, really colourful and unusual - I will have to think of lots of ways to incorporate it into my nail art.

Sunday, 19 April 2015

Hello!I like to do nails to 'go with' places I'm going! Today, I went with my mum, sister and grandma to York's Chocolate Story, which is like a museum about the history of chocolate. It's in York, where I live, but we've never actually got round to going. We thought it'd be a fun day out so we went today. There was a guided tour with info about the history of chocolate-making and how it is made. There was also quite a few different opportunities to taste chocolate in different forms, watch a chocolate-making demo and to decorate our own chocolate lolly!I had a look on Google to see what 'chocolate nails' other people had done, and found a fab design done by quite a few people that made the nails look like chocolate bars. It looked pretty simple to do, so I decided to have a go.I started off with three coats of brown polish. I remember buying this cheap, unbranded polish because brown is useful for nail art. I'd never wear brown polish otherwise! After the brown was completely dry, I used the black and the white Barry M nail art pens to create the chocolate bar pattern, using the images I'd seen on Google as a guide. I started by using the black to draw a grid on each nail, then adding a black "L" shape into each square. I then used the white to do an upside down L! As I was doing these I didn't think they looked too good, but the overall look was quite effective. *eats nails*

Wednesday, 15 April 2015

Hello!Today I've got some ladybirds to show you! I saw a similar design by @lieve91 on twitter and wanted to recreate it. I thought it'd be ideal for spring, and not too hard to do.I started with three coats of Road Rage by Barry M. This is the mint green shade from the Speedy Quick Dry collection. I've not yet had chance to try out all the shades from this collection yet, but the ones I have tried have been great! The pastel colours are gorgeous, and apply smoothly. Once my base was dry, I added red dots using a dotting tool and Passion Fruit by Barry M. I left them a while so the red dots dried and wouldn't streak when I added topcoat. After the topcoat I waited a bit longer as nails need to be completely dry when using the Barry M nail art pens.When I thought they were dry enough, I began adding heads, dots and legs to each red blob to make ladybirds. This was quite time-consuming and I had to go steadily and not rush to make sure I got all the tiny detail right. They're definitely not perfect, but as a repeated print across all my nails they look quite quirky and cute!I started by doing my right hand (as I'm left handed and it's easier) but by the time I got to my left hand I'd got the hang of it, and despite using my non-dominant hand to add the details I actually like the finished look of my left hand better, I think it's neater! Here are both my hands anyway:

...and here's a swatch of Road Rage on its own before I added the bugs. A gorgeous mint shade!!

Friday, 10 April 2015

Hello!Today I've got the results of another Mani Swap to show you. This time I collaborated with Amy from Hair, Nails, Etc who creates some gorgeous nail art!We both picked a design that the other had done, and tried to recreate it.I picked Amy's fab camouflage design. I've wanted to try camo nails in proper camo colours for a while, but I've never got round to giving it a go as I didn't think I would get the pattern to look right. However when I saw Amy's design I thought it looked perfect, and I tried to get my blobs of colour in exactly the same place as hers! I don't think mine looks as good, but I suppose it's supposed to look random - from a distance it looks okay. I started with a base of Lychee by Barry M. I could tell that Amy had used Olive, which is a more greeny-tinted nude and looks better, but I don't have that one! I then used a dotting tool to add on blobs of green, brown, khaki and black, and topped with a matte topcoat as Amy had done. Here's some pics of my finished mani!

Amy decided to recreate my Cath-Kidston-trainers-inspired cloud design. She pulled it off perfectly, as you can see in the above collage!